My co-pilot, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, will be taking part in a series of poetry readings in September and October 2013. She also has a book --part fiction, part memoir -- coming out in 2014 from Jaded Ibis. It is called "An Unsuitable Princess."
Publishing News From Across the Room
I'm happy to report that my wife, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, has a book contract from Jaded Ibis Press for her fantasy-memoir "An Unsuitable Princess." I am also happy to report that the memoir section (contained in footnotes) predates when we met.
Navigating Loss With Poetry
My wife, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, has been on a roll lately with her poetry. Red Ochre Press has just published her chapbook "The Navigation of Loss." Order a copy here. The money goes to a good cause.
Some Publishing News
My wife, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, has won a Red Ochre Press chapbook competition, had a story published this week at Fiction 365 and was nominated by her small press publisher for a Pushcart Prize for one of her poems. She will be participating at a free reading in New York on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012.
'Half-Life' Reading at Sparks Cafe
Are you a poetry fan? Jane Rosenberg LaForge (my wife) and three other New York area writers -- Lisa Marie Basile, Britt Gambino and Jim Meirose -- will present a free evening of poetry and fiction this Saturday in Chelsea. Jane is promoting her second chapbook, "Half-Life," from Big Table Publishing. It is drawn on experiences with cancer in her family (her mother died in November 2009 and her sister in July 2010, while many of these poems were being written and revised). (I wrote last year about Jane's first chapbook, "After Voices," now in its second printing, about growing up with a deaf father.) About the other writers: Lisa Marie Basile has published a chapbook, "White Spiders,'' and her full-length poetry collection, "A Decent Voodoo,'' will come out in 2012. (She's on Twitter.) Britt Gambino's work has appeared in anderbo.com and DecomP. Jim Meirose is the author of "Crossing the Trestle,'' a new collection of fiction from Burning River.
All will read from their work from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, at a free event at Sparks Art Center, 161 West 22nd St., in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan (just off Seventh Avenue, handy to No. 1 train). The art space is under the green awning in a building shared with a tile shop (the former Sparks Cafe).
Books will be available for purchase, and a quick reception with the authors will follow the readings. You can also order copies of Jane's book here.
Poetry and Silence: 'After Voices'
Updated, Nov. 15. Time for a plug. I'm pleased to announce that "After Voices," a poetry chapbook by my wife, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, was released last week by Burning River of Cleveland. Jane has been laboring over these poems for a couple of years. Some people have asked, what is a chapbook? One definition: a short booklet containing poems, ballads or stories. Jane's chapbook includes 12 poems and an essay arranged around the theme of her father's deafness. (He is already disputing some of the facts. Fun times!) Jane plans to read some of the poems at a New York University faculty-student reading in the East Village in December.
A hard copy of the chapbook can be ordered online for $6 a copy from Burning River. A PDF version can be downloaded for free (it includes a bonus poem not in the print edition). It will eventually be available as a digital book in epub format from Project Gutenberg. You can also buy a copy at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland, Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in SoHo, and the McNally-Jackson Bookstore, also in SoHo. I'll update this post if it becomes available anywhere else. Jane's working on that. Poets have to be their own distributors sometimes. It's a tough field, without a sustainable business model.
On the weekend of Oct. 17, the chapbook was released in conjunction with readings at the Morgan Conservatory of Papermaking and Visible Voice. Jane read several of the poems, including my favorites, "Lemons" and "Highway 5 Stockyard," as well as some of her unpublished poetry.
Some poems in the chapbook were previously published in some form or another in La Petite Zine, Burnside Review, Bateau, Makeout Creek, Ottawa Arts Review and Noun Versus Verb. She has also had work published by the Tipton Poetry Journal and Adirondack Review.